Inov8
retreat and Fell race
From last
Thursday to Tuesday this week I was in “ The Lake District " in the
northern part of England to attend a gathering with the rest of the runners
from Team Inov8 Europe. During our stay we had a packed program with training,
learning more about Inov8 's history, product testing and we did some photo shoots.
We had many opportunities to provide direct feedback on what we think about the
various products and witch products we personally are most satisfied with. And to give Inov8 thoughts to products they may
make in the future. From what I saw and tried of the upcoming products for 2014.
I can only say that there are a lot of great things coming both in shoes, apparel
and accessories.
Several
nations were represented at the retreat; England, France , Spain, the Basque
Country and Norway ;)
On Saturday
most of the team attended a race called the Middle Fell Fell race. This was a
classic Fell race.
Fell
running is a popular form of competition in northern part of England and it was
precisely for this kind of competitions the first Inov8 shoes were manufactured
10 years ago. In a proper Fell race you always run both up and down the
mountain/ fell / hill, this distinguishes it from the popular uphill races we
have in Norway.
From Wikipedia:
Fell running, also known as mountain running
and hill running, is the sport of running and racing, off road, over upland
country where the gradient climbed is a significant component of the difficulty.
The name Aries from the origins of the English sport on the fells of northern
Britain, especially those in the Lake District.
There were
great expectations before the race Saturday and several were mentioned as
possible favourites. I think the British runner was somewhat surprised that
they got as tough competition from us foreigner as they did. There were several changes in the lead during
the race, but in the end young and talented Tom Addison, England was the
strongest and won followed by Aritz Egea, Basque. Personally I was happy to
finish 3rd 20 seconds behind
Tom and eight seconds behind Aritz. David Schneider, Switzerland finished
fourth and after him followed the British one after the other. Favourite and British Fell Running Champion
Orlando Edwards took a wrong turn approximately 1,75 miles before the finish.
At that point he had the lead. I was second man at the time and unfortunately followed
him, something that also gave me a little penalty loop that cost me some time
and effort.
Overall
this was great weekend. It is a privilege to be able to share my running interest
with like-minded runners from several nations during a weekend like this. For
me as trains and runs much alone, up in the cold north, it is actually
liberating to see that there are many out there in the world with the same
interest in running trails and mountains as me. This was a very motivating
weekend in terms of the upcoming season.
It was also
very inspiring to see how professionally and not least how wholehearted my
sponsor Inov8 work to give us the best products possible. Inov8 is a small shoe
company that compete in a market with several much larger shoe manufacturers. I
am proud to be part of the team this year and hope my experience as a runner
can help them keep on developing good products, like they do today, in the
future. And I can personally guarantee anyone who buys a product from Inov8
that it is made by people with real passion for running!
Picture: Orlando Edwards sprints down Middel Fell in really short shorts Photo: Ian Corless
